So I pulled the '60 (I was told) 352 out of my '55 Merc for a few reasons- It leaked alot of oil so I'm replacing gaskets and seals, it was painted stupid colors, engine bay was nasty, and the four-on-the-floor was stuck in 3rd gear. And I was also very curious to know if it had ever been bored out, what the cylinder walls looked like, and what I had for a camshaft. I bought it in 2020 and drove it, but never opened anything up until now. So I took measurements on the camshaft the other day and curious on what the experts here think about the profile. I'm wondering if it looks like a stock cam or not. It sounds like it has a "wicked cam", but that might just be the lakepipes talking. After measuring it, it seems to me like it's nothing crazy at all. I used Summit's cam card format as a template. You can see by my setup that my measurements might be off here and there by a degree or two, but it should be darn close. I have no plans to change it but just curious what I have. Thanks!
Looks like a moderately lumpy street performance cam. I'll note your motor isn't a '60, as the '58-60 motors had three differences. One, they used a stamped steel timing cover with a spring and button arrangement to control cam thrust ala SBC. Those parts are all obsolete, it's not uncommon to find the early motors converted to the later thrust plate/cam/timing set. You have the later aluminum timing cover. Two, Ford installed a dowl pin on the front intake sealing wall to locate the intake. Ford deleted that in '61. The newer intakes will fit once the dowl is gone. Three, the bypass hose between the water pump and intake manifold is larger at 11/16" ID than the later motors which used the common 5/8" size. Another obsolete part, back in the day it was only available from Ford.
Nothing to contribute to this specific thread. Just a request. Post as much of the rehash and reinstall as possible. I'm a diehard GM guy(hence my username lol) but man do I love an FE
FEs are cool old torque monsters. Your cam specs look like a nice street cam however the lobe separation angle looks wide to me, I would think that somewhere between 108 and 114 degrees would be common on a cam with your lift. Dan
Steve, good to know, thanks for the info. That's alot of what this rebuild is about is learning what I have! Pope, will do! I'll start another thread on the rebuild. Sharpone, that seemed like a wide LSA to me, too, but I have just dabbled in cam specs and I am no expert at it. But I don't think I've ever seen an LSA in the 130s. I triple checked and I'm confident in saying that is correct. Curious...
If your intake CL is 110 and exhaust 114 as your card says, then the lobe sep angle is 112 and the cam is installed advanced 2 degrees.
@chicken, thanks for posting. I was looking at the numbers, with a sleepy head this morning, and they just weren't falling in to place. But, couldn't get a handle on it.
Thanks @chicken right there in black and white dah lol. Did not have had enough coffee for rational deductive thinking just knew that a LSA in the 130s didn’t sound right. Dan
OK this is good stuff- Chicken, please explain the math to me. Sounds like 136 is obviously wrong, but I am confident that the 110 and 114 is right (within a degree or so). So how does the math work? I am obviously doing the math wrong because I keep coming up with 136. How does that work, and thank you!
From AI Google: Understanding LSA It is measured in degrees of camshaft rotation, representing the distance between the intake and exhaust lobe centerlines. It's calculated by adding the intake centerline and exhaust centerline, then dividing the sum by two.
This is correct. In addition, advancing the cam will make the intake centerline number smaller and the exhaust number larger but when added together and divided by two will still be 112 in the case of the 352 cam above.
OK, good to know, but I'm still curious how that works mathematically, and why the way I was figuring it doesn't work. If you look at my chicken scratches below, there is 70° between the intake centerline and BDC, and 66° between the exhaust centerline and BDC, and 70+66 is 136. Please know that I am not arguing! I know 112 is right and 136 is wrong, I just want to know why- it's driving me nuts! LOL Thank you!
Reread post #13. Adding the centerlines up and dividing by two is your LSA There’s no mention of using BDC, curious where you got that information from?
I understand adding the centerlines and dividing by two, I am just hoping to find out why that works, what's the math behind it? I just drew a circle and labeled it. The circle represents a 360° turn of the crankshaft, and the crankshaft turns 136° to get from the centerline of the exhaust to the centerline of the intake. Obviously what I did there doesn't work, I'm just wondering why.
Lobe sep angle is expressed in camshaft degrees rather than crankshaft degrees. If you take a cam by itself and draw a line through the centers of both lobes for any cylinder, the angle of those two lines will be the lobe separation angle.
LSA at a Glance Narrower LSA: Moves torque to lower rpm Increases maximum torque Narrow powerband Increase chance of engine knock Increase cranking compression Idle vacuum and quality is reduced Valve overlap increases Decreases piston-to-valve clearance Wider LSA: Raise torque to higher rpm Reduces maximum torque Broadens powerband Decrease chance of engine knock Decrease cranking compression Idle vacuum and quality is improved Valve overlap decreases Increases piston-to-valve clearance [data-ids=CardContent]_[data-card-title]]:underline flex-col gap-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; position: relative; display: flex; height: 348.1875px; flex-direction: column; gap: calc(var(--spacing)*2);"> Copied from HR Dan
Measure across TDC, not BDC (110° + 114°). Convert crankshaft rotation to camshaft rotation (divide by 2). If you're wondering why use the wider separation across the top of your circle rather than the bottom, you neglected the second crank rotation for a cycle. The circle represents 720° crank rotation, not 360°.
Ah-ha! Thank you all very much! Now I understand and can move on! I was assuming that since the centerlines were measured in degrees of crankshaft rotation, that the LSA would also be measured in the same manner.
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